Chapter One: A Sweet Song of Blood

Our second look at our beautifully bloody siren.

Another ship, carrying other humans. Shameful how they can enslave their own people to others of their own kind. It’s pitiful how easy it is to tempt humans into sailing directly into the rocks. I am the final song in this cove; even if I’m not the only one who lives in the area. The others will pick up the bodies so we can eat for about a week.

“Kytherinia!” Sycophina, my sister calls. She seems almost displeased. Mother must be upset again. She seems to be upset all the time, whether it’s how much I’ve caught for the Chorus or how I caught it, or even if I look at the remains of a ship for a moment too long for her liking.

I dive in, it’s quite irritating how often she’s upset, we’re going to eat well for days off of that slave ship. I’m the one who lured them in, I caught the Chorus’ food for the next three days at least.

“Kytherinia, I thought we had agreed to wait until the ship was closer.” Mother flashes with her scales. She may be the Matriarch of the Chorus, and she may be the current leader, but she’s not all powerful, her voice is fading, she is growing weaker by the day.

“Mother, I cannot possibly control where the rocks are or how quickly the humans turn the ship.” I flash back. I could try, but that’d be more effort than it’s worth, at that point the ship’s already going to sink in the cove.

“Yet you fail to care either way, it’s almost like you don’t mind that the others have to swim all the way out there multiple times just to get all the bodies!” The brightness of her bio-luminescent scales goes up as she flashes the information across, she’s really trying to get her point across.

“Yes Mother, I’m sorry that the rocks are farther out than you want them to be. It’s all my fault.” Sarcasm is hard to pick up in our Chorus’s language, it’s not common. I’ve kept the brightness of my scales down to avoid a further fight.

“Go out and help them get the bodies. I expect you to find all of them.”

“Yes Mother.” With the argument finished, I start to swim towards the newest wreck. Some of the humans aboard are chained to the deck, how odd, most of the humans are chained to the deck of the ship.

I see a girl, her chestnut brown hair floating around me. I can faintly hear a heartbeat from her chest. She’s not dead yet. Odd, it’s already been minutes since the ship sank. She too is chained to the deck, that’s not really a problem for me, but it does seem to be a problem for this unconscious girl.

I reach out towards the chains with both hands and pull them apart, the chain links like brittle old bones in my hands. I grab the girl from under her arms, just one girl couldn’t possibly be a threat. She’s unarmed and would have no backup on the island.

I drag her on the shore, undrowning humans is literally the exact opposite of what I do, so I’m not too sure what to do.

“Hello, human. I know you’re alive, I can hear your heartbeat. Wake up.” I say aloud. “Hello~ I could get in so much trouble for doing this. Wake up already.” 

What’s even the point, this human is probably as good as dead. Humans can’t handle water in their lungs, they’re not fish. I was kinda hoping this human could explain why I saved her, maybe she put a weird spell or something on me; why else would I care about a random human’s fate? I’ve killed many before her, I’ll kill many after her.

I stare at her. Her face is soft, yet there’s a hunger to it, like she hasn’t eaten a proper meal in years. Her hair is near black now, but I’m sure it’s a medium brown when it’s dry. The skin seems to cling onto her bones, clearly she was not well taken care of by whatever master sold her to another human.

How horrendous humans are to treat their own kind like this. Even sirens are more respectful of those smaller than us. It is polite and traditional to always be at eye level with everybody else, because it’s respectful, but also because it could be dangerous to be close to the tail of a whale shark mermaid, they are quite big, after all.

“Human~ Come on, I have to go get the other bodies so the Chorus can eat but I can’t leave you right here for everybody to see. Wake up already.” I find a stick nearby and start poking the human’s arm. They should really try harder to breathe underwater, this is pathetic. Humans are so fragile, no wonder their ships sink so easily.

The waves crash behind me, my tail is already starting to dry out. This human girl should hurry up. I brought her up before she actually drowned, she’s surrounded by air, humans can breathe air. The water was clouded with the blood of humans that were crushed or impaled when the ship sank, those are always the worst ones, bone fragments everywhere.

The girl coughs up some water, at last! I knew she was alive. “Welcome back to the land of the living, human. I hope you know that saving you could get me in so much trouble.” I look at my nails, sharp, as they should be.

She doesn’t stop coughing for a minute or so. Finally she asks me a single question: “Who, no what are you?”

“More like why don’t you know what I am? In any case, I could have a fin cut off for this, if you cause any damage, they’d cut out my vocal cords. Do you know what happens to a siren if her vocal cords are cut out?” She dies. I flash the last part without realizing, even if she won’t understand. The words she dies are a total of three flashes, mostly on the bottom fins. The flashes are bright, and fast, slightly panicked.

“Y-you’re a siren?!” She’s alarmed. If she keeps shouting like this, somebody in the Chorus is bound to hear her. If they hear her, Mother will be so angry, I won’t even get a trial.

“Duh, can you be quiet, I literally just said that I could die if they find you, that also means you die, human.” I have to get her to quiet down, sirens have too good of hearing for her to be yelling and screaming about me being a siren. She doesn’t seem to understand what I’ve put on the line to save her life, and she’s about to throw it away if she shouts one more time. I don’t particularly feel like dying today, so she’s going to have to be quieter.

“You’re a siren… why did you save me?” There’s the second question.

“Look I’m sure you have a ton of questions that’ll likely take time and make my absence look very suspicious so here’s a quick rundown. You’re on Kythera, the ship you were on is sunk, yes you’re stuck here, no do not make contact with other sirens, my name is Kytherinia, I am one of seven daughters of the Matriarch of this Chorus. Yes we are all sirens. Yes, they will kill you if they find you. Anything else?” 

My tail is starting to feel prickly, I have to get off this beach soon, it’s too dry here. I must leave before one of my kin finds me on the beach.

“M-my name’s Callista.” Her voice trembles a slight quaver that speaks of inexperience with real peril. Perhaps she’s never encountered true danger before, or maybe the shadows of the cove have stifled her spirit. At least we’re getting somewhere

“I’d say it’s a pleasure, but we could both die if anybody finds you, hide yourself. Do not come back on the beach.” My mind flashes back to the siren whose kindness had sealed her fate; they had dragged her from the water, her screams echoing like a bitter melody against the rocks. They had made an example of her, cutting her vocal cords and preserving them like trophies. I think it’s shameful, they should put that siren’s vocal cords with the rest of her body in the trench. It’s been two hundred years since she died, I think she deserves to finally rest with the rest of our fallen sisters.

“Where would I go? Where could I hide?” More questions, she acts like I spend all my time walking around. As if I had legs. She’s so fragile, damp on the edge of a world she’ll only get to see if she dies.

“Go anywhere but this cursed beach. You’ll die if you stay here, so hide somewhere in the trees.” I flick my tail, the sound of the water is changing, and somebody’s coming. “Go! Now. Get in the trees, run!” If they find out, we’re both dead. I can’t believe I saved her, I knew that siren who they killed. I swore I’d never be like her, but here I am, trying to save a human just because.

I watch as she sprints for the woods, apparently she noticed the shadows in the water. I start to scooch myself back into the water, making my best attempt to look disappointed and upset.

“Kytherinia! What are you doing up here!?” Caelumara, my best friend, she’s worried. “Your mother is going to be so mad if she finds out!” She grabs my fins and pulls me into the surf.

“Caelumara, careful! I’ve only got one set of those fins.” She’s tan, it’s clear she’s spent many hours under the sun. Her freckles are splashed across her cheeks and nose.

“Yeah and your mother’d cut them off if she found out you were just sitting on the surface instead of collecting bodies! I had to cover for you again!” I flick her red hair, and it floats away. By the brightness of her flashes, she’s scared for me.

“What are you worried about? It’s not like Mother’d kill her perfect middle child.” I’m glad Caelumara knows when I’m being sarcastic in Nerith “It’s not like my life is on the line or anything.” I smile and swim forward, acting like all this is a game is how I keep others guessing, it’s fun.

“You know she won’t care, she’s the Matriarch, she has to do what’s best for the Chorus. If anybody finds out you might be putting us at risk by going to the surface when you’re not hunting, you’ll barely even have a trial.” She must also think that I think this is a game, she’s good at reading me most of the time, but sometimes even she’s fooled by my seemingly lack of care for the whole. “They’ll vote to convict, and your vocal cords will be the next ones on display!” She’s quite worried, interesting.

“Is the Matriarch angry again?” I have to ask, so I know how to approach this and get the minimum punishment from her. “You said you covered for me too, what story did you tell them?”

Author's Note

1893 words.
Here's the first chapter! Constructive criticism is always more than welcome.